Jewish identity of ‘Wonder Woman'

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[How the Jewish identity of 'Wonder Woman's' star

"Wonder Woman" has drawn all kinds of controversy over gender politics since its release last Friday, but it has also put the spotlight on Jewish debates over race and nationality. The star of the film, Gal Gadot, who speaks English with an Israeli accent, has become an Israeli star and generated buzz both here and abroad.

Ahead of the film's international release, Lebanon banned the film because of Gadot, who, like most Israeli citizens, served a mandatory two-year stint in the Israeli Defense Forces as a combat trainer. (Jordan is also reportedly considering a ban on the film.)

In 2014, Gadot posted on Facebook support of the Israeli army's actions in Gaza while lighting candles with her daughter and writing "Shabbat Shalom," the common greeting Jews say to one another on the Sabbath.

Gadot, whose grandfather survived Auschwitz, was born and raised in Rosh Haayin in Israel and was Miss Israel at age 18. In an interview with ABC, Gadot joked that being pregnant as Wonder Woman (she did some shoots when she was five months pregnant) was harder than being in the Israeli army.

Gadot's role in the film, which grossed $103.3 million domestically and $228.3 million worldwide in its debut, has also resurfaced a debate this week among American Jews over race. In a piece at comicbook.com, Matthew Mueller argued that "Gal Gadot is not actually Caucasian, but is in fact Israeli," Mueller wrote. Looking white doesn't mean you are white, Mueller writes, pointing to a column this year from the Times of Israel that said, "conceptualizing Jews as either 'white' or just a religion,' as many of our detractors are wont to do, helps to perpetuate a culture of antisemitism on the anti-racist left."

The debate "Are Jews white?" has seen a resurgence since the presidential election last year and was resurrected surrounding the release of "Wonder Woman."

"So, is Gal Gadot white?" asks Joel Finkelstein in the Forward. "Is she North African/Middle Eastern and Israeli and Jewish and European and white? Is she all six of these things? Or perhaps something else? Who decides whether Jews are white, and what forces guides those decisions? The ambiguity of Jewish ethnicity serves as a perverse weapon in hands hostile to Jewish identity."

Mark Tseng-Putterman, who is Asian American and Jewish, says the argument that all Jews are people of color by default is out of touch with race in North America, where race was constructed as an outgrowth of slavery and genocide.

"In the context of American institutions that produce race (namely slavery and genocide), European Jews were firmly positioned as white and were able to systematically benefit from these institutions," he said.

Arguing that Jews are a "race" and a nonwhite race, he said, threatens to ignore the racial diversity within the Jewish community. "Those making claims about Jewish genetics also fail to grasp that 'race' is not a biological category but one socially constructed by political and legal institutions," Tseng-Putterman said.

When European Jews began to immigrate to the United States, they were legally considered white while they were barred from activity in U.S. public life. Over time, they assimilated and the question over race grew complicated, Emma Green wrote for the Atlantic late last year.

Gadot's identity has been noted across Jewish media, including the Jewish Journal, which examined the Jewish essence of her character.

"It isn't just a triumph for women that the new savior of the world is female; it is a triumph for the Jews," Danielle Berrin wrote. Although the film is set during World War I, she noted the character's origins fighting Nazis in World War II. Fighting Hitler, Berrin wrote, is in the character's DNA.

Gadot defies some of the stereotypes of women, especially as many Jewish women were portrayed on film as unattractive or the funny sidekick, said Emily Shire, politics editor at Bustle.

"It's a landmark film for women for so many reasons, and this takes it to another level," Shire said. "There is a history of Jews making movies and Jews loving movies, but who was on screen?"

"Wonder Woman" follows a long line of Jewish ties to comic book characters. Many superheroes were created by Jews, according to Haaretz, including Superman, Captain America, Batman, Spider-Man, the Hulk, the Fantastic Four, Ironman, the X-Men, Thor and the Avengers. Since daily newspapers in the 1930s would not accept illustrations by Jews, Haaretz reports, many Jews found a home in comic book publishing.

Cont.